Understanding the Onset of Auroral Substorms: THEMIS E/PO

1. A Quest to Understand the Onset of Auroral Substorms THEMIS E/PO N. Craig, L. M. Peticolas, V. AngelopoulosURL: http://ds9.ssl.berkeley.edu/themis

2. Overall Management and Partnership Structure for THEMIS E/PO Principal Investigator Vassilis Angelopoulos . EPO Lead Nahide Craig EPO Specialist Laura Peticolas EPO Science Content Advisors J. Bonnell, C. Russell, S. Mende Teacher Consultants Tom Sheffler & Lonny Villalobos Cornerstone Eval. Assoc. Allyson Walker L. H. S Carolyn Willard Allan Gould Astronomy Café Sten Odenwald Graphic Designer Montana State Space Grant Donna Minton UCLA GMAG Alaska GBOs McGrath & Kiana Schools E/PO Administrative Coordinator Amy Shutkin (part time from sprg) Systems and office support (part time from SECEF) SACNAS Ramon Lopez 10 GEONS Teachers

3. Formal Education • Place research-grade magnetometers in 10 schools around U.S.{GeomagneticEvent Observation Network by Students (GEONS) } • Inspire these communities • Provide professional development, lesson plans, and data (via web and on site) to the GEONS teachers regularly • Use this GEONS program as a test-bed to reach more teachers at professional development workshops at local, regional, and national science teacher conferences • Use this GEONS program and data web developments to provide data to the Student Observation Network (SON) program to reach more teachers via the web.

4. Magnetometer Schools in 10 States Mags installed Petersburg City Schools: Vic TrautmanPetersburg, AlaskaChippewa Hills High School: Cris DeWolfRemus,MichiganHot Springs High School: Sean EstillHot Springs,MontanaWestern Nevada Community College: Robert CollierCarson City, NevadaFort Yates Public School: Daryl BrahosFort Yates,North DakotaUkiah School: Laura OrrUkiah,Oregon Northern Bedford County High School: Keith LittleLoysburg,PennsylvaniaRed Cloud High School: Wendell GehmanPine Ridge, South DakotaShawano Community High School: Wendy EschShawano, WisconsinNorth County Union Jr. High School: Holly WilleyDerby,Vermont

5. Fluxgate Magnetometer Setup • UCLA provides technical users’ manuals along with GMAG unit • Installed five magnetometers in Summer ’04, and will install five in Summer ’05 • Will provide ground data processing, data access, and archiving procedures • Will provide common data packets from all sites by end of December Fluxgate Magnetometer Electronics Circuit BoardEPO Magnetometer Chassis Atop Magnetic Shield Calibration System Fluxgate Sensor Installed in Ground Carson City

6. Carson City Magnetometer Installation Special workforce from SSL! Magnetometer sensor cable in the trench David attaching GPS receiver to a pipe. Our teacher Terry, with his feathery friend, gave moral support! Magnetometer in the classroom David, hooking the monitor to its computer Carson City FIRST Data!

7. EPO #1 EPO #2 EPO #3 EPO #10 Internet U of Alberta UCLA U Calgary GBO #1 UC Berkeley GBO #2 Archival Validated Data Non-Validated Data Non-Validated Data EPO Magnetometer Data Flow Non-Validated Data

8. Communications, Dissemination since April 2004 • Monthly E/PO partners telecon • YAHOO site established for GEONS Teachers • Good tool for communication and sharing information • Weekly exchanges on auroras, updates, installations • Teacher-to-teacher postings • Lessons of the week • Teacher Professional Development • NSTA Teacher Workshop - April, Atlanta, GA • GEONS Workshop - July Berkeley, CA • CSTA Workshop - 84 teachers • NASA w/ LWS – Anchorage 300 teachers + • AISES –Anchorage - 10 teachers • SACNAS – 22 teachers • Idaho Falls 7,000 students, 300 teachers, 3 day looong “Expo”

9. Good Press, Conferences, and a Patch PRESS RELEASE SENT TO SCHOOLS FOR THEIR LOCAL NEWSPAPERS • Bismarck Tribune- Fort Yates E/PO Magnetometers: April 14, Bismarck ND • WESTWIND - Western Nevada Community College Newsletter: Sept. “Carson City Students, WNCC, NASA Partner to study Northern Lights” “High school and middle school students in CC will collaborate in a unique scientific investigation to understand the onset of auroral substorms, little understood events that break up the Aurora Borealis into beautiful and mysterious dancing lights.” • Rapid City Journal – Oct. 11, “Red Cloud to study northern lights” PINE RIDGE – “A new piece of equipment that will help scientists study the colorful northern lights is to arrive Thursday at Red Cloud Indian School. Red Cloud is one of 10 schools in the nation and the only South Dakota school selected to receive a $20,000 magnetometer installation. The magnetometer will measure changes in the Earth's invisible magnetic field, according to a school news release. Wendell Gehman, a high school science teacher at Red Cloud, submitted the proposal that resulted in Red Cloud's selection for the THEMIS program. Gehman will use the information collected by the magnetometer and accompanying equipment in his science classes. Students at Red Cloud High School will help install the equipment Thursday.” • The Nevada Appeal – Oct. 15, “Kids attracted to science project like magnet” “The students are studying magnetism as part of their involvement with a NASA project that examines the interaction of solar storms and Earth’s magnetosphere.” CONFERENCES • Talk @ AGU May, Montreal – “THEMIS Ground-based magnetometer arrays and their education and public outreach potential ” • Poster @ AAS – June, Denver –“ Education and Public Outreach with THEMIS Ground-based research grade magnetometers” • Poster @AGU – December, SF – “Partners and Networks in the THEMIS E/PO program” THEMIS PATCH -designed and printed 10,000 copies for distribution

10. Feedback from teachersINSPIRATIONAL - ONLY NASA CAN “We also recently got some positive press from our local paper as well. They did a front page article a few weeks ago about our involvement with the mission. They did mess up on the science a bit though, saying that the magnetometer detected changes in our atmosphere rather than in the magnetosphere! This really opened some of my students eyes. They have had the impression (possibly passed on from parents who attended in troubled times when we had labor disputes and funding problems) that we are a 2nd rate school. Now they are beginning to see that they can be as good a school as any - if they take advantage of the opportunities that are open to them.” Chris De Wolf, GEONS teacher Chippewa Hills High School. Remus MI

11. In Progress • AAPT in January • Installation of the remaining 5 E/PO Magnetometers • Carson City 2nd GEONS Workshop - 2005 June • NEW GEMS Center @ Carson City, NV - 2005 June • Collaborating w/ NASA E/PO proposals related to magnetometers • Evaluator started working w/ teacher interviews • WORKSHOPS February Fresno State Teachers Teacher Workshop at SSL • WORKSHOP March Idaho Falls 2 District Teacher Workshop? • WORKSHOP April Cal Day • WORKSHOP May Teacher Workshop at SSL • WORKSHOPS June GEONS II workshop CC GEMS Workshop • Exploring Magnetism Teachers Guide – • “exemplary material” • First printing 5,000 copies, March • Updated 2nd printing 10,000 copies for CORE, November